More than a hundred classmates and other friends gathered for a candelight vigil Tuesday evening to remember 13-year-old Kyle and 15-year-old Sean Fuchs, brothers who police say were shot to death by their father in their Bonita home.”It was shocking,” said one friend, Seth Calvert. “I woke up this morning, watching the news and heard. I just couldn’t believe it. I started out in tears.”Crews extinguishing a suspected arson fire that engulfed a South Bay home early Tuesday found the bodies of a man and his two teenage sons, who apparently died in a murder-suicide.”He was a normal guy… normal dad taking us home,” said Sienna Samson, a friend of Sean Fuch’s who carpooled with the boys’ father. “It never would occur to me that something like this would happen.”The blaze in the 3600 Bonita Verde Drivein Chula Vista was reported shortly after 1:30 a.m., according to police.While dousing the flames, firefighters found a dead man in a hallway and the bodies of two boys in separate bedrooms, Lt. Lon Turner said. All three appeared to have been fatally shot, and investigators found notes suggesting the deaths were a case of murder-suicide and that the home had been intentionally burned down, the lieutenant said.Authorities confirmed the victims as 49-year-old Thomas Fuchs and his two sons, Kyle and Sean.At Tuesday’s vigil, loved ones of both Sean and Kyle could not contain their emotions.

“Kyle…is super-nice and really smart,” said one friend, Krystle Torres. “I never expected this to happen.”

Friends described Sean, the older brother, as reserved but with a sharp sense of humor.

“(Sean) was known as the cool shy guy,” said Jessica Nedina. “He was such a wonderful kid and he made everyone laugh.”

“They don’t deserve this,” said another friend, speaking at Tuesday’s vigil. “That’s all I can say: they don’t deserve this.”

Thomas Fuchs was divorced, was in danger of losing his home and was in a dispute with his ex-wife over custody of their sons.

THIS IS AN UPDATE TO THE PREVIOUS STORY BELOW.

A triple homicide investigation was launched early Tuesday after firefighters discovered three bodies inside a burned-out home in Chula Vista, police said.

Firefighters were called to put out the blaze at 3641 Bonita Verde Drive at 1:37 a.m., according to a San Diego fire-rescue dispatcher. Flames were knocked down by about 2 a.m., she said.

Once inside, firefighters found the body of a man in one room and the bodies of two teenage boys in another room, Chula Vista police said. All three victims were believed to be residents of the home.

According to one neighbor, the residents who lived there were a father and his two teenage sons. The man had apparently recently separated from his wife.

Police said the three bodies have injuries that the fire did not cause and they “appear to have died of suspicious causes.”

Their names and ages and causes of death were not immediately released.

This is the horrific moment police told a
mother her ex-husband had shot dead their two sons before setting the house on
fire and turning the gun on himself

The bodies of Thomas Fuchs, a life coach and
former attorney, and his sons Sean, 15 and Kyle, 13, were discovered in the
early hours of yesterday morning when firefighters were called to a blaze at
their home in Chula Vista, California.

When the boys’ mother arrived at 8am to pick
the boys up, her anguished screams were caught on local television cameras.
Maria Pe shouted ‘no, no, no’ as she clutched her stomach before collapsing to
the ground.

Shocked friends, neighbours and schoolmates
gathered outside the house yesterday as they tried to understand why Fuchs, who
had a doctorate in clinical psychology, would kill his own children.

It is understood he was facing financial
difficulties as he and his ex-wife battled for custody over the boys, but
neighbours described him as ‘the perfect father’.

In a school essay written just days before he
died his eldest son, Sean, described his father as his ‘hero’.

Sean also made a YouTube video as part of a
school project on the environment in which he poignantly said: ‘Honestly, I
don’t care if I don’t go down in history, i don’t care if I’m not remembered, as
long as I do something good.’

Suicide notes were found throughout the
ranch-style house house and in Fuchs’s minivan, one of which said ‘you wouldn’t
understand’. He also left behind photo albums of the boys.

Police said they believed Fuchs, 49, shot his
two sons before lighting several fires around the house and turning the gun on
himself.

Unthinkable: Thomas Fuchs, a life coach, shot dead his two
sons then set fire to the family home before turning the gun on himself. He left
suicide notes in his van and in the house, saying ‘you wouldn’t
understand’

Neighbours in the quiet cul-de-sac called
police at 1.30am when they saw smoke billowing from the property.

His body was found in the hallway with a
pistol by his side, and his two sons were discovered in their own
bedrooms.

NBC San Diego reported that Mr Fuchs was
locked in an acrimonious custody battle with his ex-wife, who is also a
lawyer.

He was also distraught over financial
problems, and his home in Chula Vista was in the process of foreclosure,
according to real estate records.

But police say they are baffled as to why
Fuchs would take such an unimaginable course. He originally trained as a lawyer
before taking a doctorate in psychology in California.

Bloody scene: The home where Thomas Fuchs shot his two sons then turned the gun on himself

A normal family: Kyle and Sean’s drawings decorate the garage of their home. The brothers were found dead in their bedrooms yesterday
after their father shot them in a double murder-suicide

He wrote a thesis on ‘the midlife transition
of men’, and ran his own life coaching business, Solutions Directed Coaching,
which helped financial advisers and attorneys.

He ran baseball and football training sessions
for local children, and had travelled to Uganda on charity
missions.

On his website he wrote: ‘During my clinical
work, I saw that therapy was really designed to address only certain types of
problems, typically areas of pronounced distress.

‘Outside the clinical setting, I saw there
were many people who were managing adequately in life, but who really wanted
something more.

‘They knew they were not reaching their full
potential. They were not fully experiencing what life has to
offer.’

Describing the suicide notes, Lieutenant Lon
Turner told the channel: ‘He did reach out to family members telling them
certain things that he appreciated about them. The fact that they probably
wouldn’t understand why he did what he did.’

Popular
boys: Kyle and Sean Fuchs were described as ‘straight A students’ , and
often had friends over

Charity work: Thomas Fuchs had spent time in Uganda working with orphans

Friends and neighbours were stunned by the
killings, and said the family always seemed normal, the San Diego Union Tribune
reported.

One, Pat Valdivia, said Fuchs and the boys
were ‘the perfect dad and sons’, and were often outside playing
basketball.

All day yesterday friends of the two boys
gathered outside the house for a candlelit vigil, on what should have been Kyle
and Sean’s last day at school before the summer vacation.

They sobbed and hugged each other for support
as they shared their memories of the two boys.

Kyle was a seventh-grader at Bonita Vista
Middle School, where his elder brother had also been a pupil before moving to
High Tech High School.

The principal of Bonita Vista, Bernard
Balanay, told the San Diego Union Tribune Kyle was a straight-A student who was
taking accelerated classes.

Devastated: Sean and Kyle’s tearful friends wrote tributes on a board placed outside their home yesterday

Shellshocked: Devastated school friends held a candlelit vigil outside the boys’ house

He said: ‘He was well-liked. His teachers said
he was quiet, pretty reserved for most of the year, but later, his humour
started coming out.’

Sean had also made name for himself at the
school, where he took part in the competitive Knowledge Bowl two years in a
row.

Mr Balaney said: ‘It ran in the family as far
as being bright. We want to remember them as the successful students they
were.’

According to California State Bar records,
Fuchs was an inactive member of the bar, as is his ex-wife.

He studied psychology at Fordham University in
New York then went to law school at the University of California before taking
his doctorate at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant
University.

Yesterday’s murder-suicide was the third
involving families in San Diego County in recent
weeks.